____________________________________________________________________________
Sarah Balkaran
I am attending my fieldwork observations at an art classroom at Cobble Hill High School for American Studies. The classes have a mixture of students from different grade levels, ranging from 9th grade to 12th grade. My mentor teacher’s class flow is entirely based on classroom behavior management, rather than creative freedom and expression which opposes my perspective of Art Education. Most lessons revolve around an end goal, sometimes prefaced with an art history portion that feels disconnected from the creative process. The creative process itself is approached with a clear demonstration of failure and success which leaves very little room for critical thinking, development of aesthetic problem solving, and exploration of technique. While this approach may work for some core classes or even some students, I feel apprehensive about its impact on creative development and mental and emotional exploration.
This school has a very lax stance on technology use within the classroom, specifically students using cell phones during class time. Some teachers have found ways to integrate cell phones into lessons for educational or participatory purposes, but my mentor teacher chose to make it a routine to put all technology away for the first ten minutes of direct instruction, and then students may use their phones for whatever they wish during the rest of class. I have mixed feelings about this, as technology could be used to increase engagement and mental strengthening when implemented correctly. In this case, however, I feel that student’s still drift off on their phones even during the first ten minutes of class. I am reminded of Carr (2008), who states that his “concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages” (pg. 1). He speaks on how technology’s development has impacted our concentration, and the way that we think and react to information. While information has become increasingly accessible to us, which may be valuable, especially within the context of Art Education and creative approaches, students simply seek a definitive answer that requires very little complex thinking or creative problem-solving. For instance, one lesson at this high school was to draw a clown portrait. While very few students remained unplugged to work on their project and developed some very interesting and unique creative explorations and decisions, most of the class immediately sought a definitive “answer” to this creative “problem” and copied what images they found verbatim to the best of their abilities. This was jarring as I understand art as an open-ended question in which you explore your mind, emotions, and experiences through the medium at hand. These students, however, see the perfected image related to their assignment and create a shorthand version of it with little to no mental exercise, which is influenced by the notion that “if our brains were supplemented, or even replaced, by an artificial intelligence” we’d be better off since we understand the googled “answer” as one of the only correct options (Carr, 2008, pg. 5). There were many pathways students might have taken to reach an end to their creative assignment, yet they were afraid of failure or true creative experimentation.
As a teacher, my goal would be to break students away from their fear of failure and guide them to question why we view the internet’s answer as the only correct option and instead ask how can we be better than this or how can I create something more meaningful to me? Rutledge discusses the notion of failure and success and states that “a key feature of gameplay is that failure is not ‘failure’ in the schoolyard sense. Failure is equivalent to feedback and the risk of failing is minimal and recovery is easily achieved, encouraging exploration, experimentation, and the development of new problem-solving strategies” (Rutledge, 2012, pg. 3). These students are not allowing themselves to experience creative failure, preventing them from authentic artistic and critical thinking success. This is perpetuated by the art teacher’s process oriented approach, which does not encourage artistic exploration and mental safety to fail creatively. While I develop my curriculum I will keep in mind that a “balance of skill and challenge keeps the [student’s] brain aroused, attention engaged, and motivation high, and that “the acquisition of skills to meet each challenge also provides a series of mastery experiences” that these students would certainly benefit from developmentally, creatively, and emotionally (Rutledge, 2012, pg. 2). The lesson I am taking away from this experience is that students need to be challenged and that it's important to set expectations high because they are capable of meeting it, even if they need guidance and time to adjust. I do not believe in easy answers when it comes to art, and I will create a safe space for students to feel comfortable failing creatively as failure teaches us many things.
References
Carr, N. (2008). Is Google Making Us Stupid? The Atlantic, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-7984.2008.00172.x
Rutledge, P. B. (2012). Video Games, Problem Solving, and Self-Efficacy. Psychology Today, 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1037/e636882012-001
_____________________________________________________________________________
Hi Sarah!
First off, thanks so much for writing this. It really feels like a beautiful and eloquent examination of teacher, students, art, technology, and you as attentive observer.
In terms of the text itself, you give just enough detail to describe the underlying classroom environment while easily transitioning to personal insights as well as your very holistic view of arts education. You also do a great job of transitioning to your own practice.
Please read my comments above for more specific feedback.
Maybe think about why education seems to structurally avoid failure (e.g., in later high school, grades are so important that students may want to just go for tried-and-true to get the A which will help them get into their preferred college, etc.).
Thank you so much for writing this! It was truly a pleasure to read! And as a person who oscillates on an almost moment-by-moment view of technology, thanks for bringing both ends of the spectrum into focus and balance.
Thanks again!
Dino
_____________________________________________________________________________